5)
“Look Magazine 1963”
Another old, obsolete story,
blaming the SGI for Nichiren Shoshu policy.
It is just mind boggling how SG-eye/Cebunet can, with a straight face, reach back 40 years to find examples of the SGI following the priests instructions, for which they condemn the SGI; and then post other articles condemning the SGI for no longer following those same priestly instructions.
These last three articles the LA Times, the Straits Times, and Look Magazine — perfectly illustrate what Nichiren Shoshu really is.
The High Priest of Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated over 10 million people in 1991 because the leader of their organization said the High Priest should not be despotic (thus, of course, proving that the leader was correct in his evaluation of the High Priest). The High Priest insists that this action was taken to preserve the purity of the Buddhist teachings, but there is no Buddhist teaching that “one must never criticize or question the High Priest”. Nichiren himself suffered many criticisms from his own disciples, and never asked any to leave his group — some left, of their own accord, but Nichiren never “excommunicated” anyone.
No — the only thing that matters, to a true disciple of the Buddha, is to allow as many people as possible to take faith in the Buddha’s teaching, and to become happy. Guarding one’s position is not an imperative, but that is precisely what the High Priest did. He has keen insight: he saw that it is now possible to widely disseminate the Buddha’s teachings, and now possible for people throughout the world to practice those teachings and attain Buddhahood, without the help or intercession of clergy. His transparent motivation in excommunicating 10 million laity was an attempt to put the brakes on history, to preserve the institution of the priesthood in its historic and traditional place in religion. His intention, in short, was to destroy the SGI, which was demonstrating that time had passed the priesthood by.
And he is still trying to stop time — a most frustrating undertaking. Those 10 million people did not become alarmed, did not abandon the Gakkai. And that has led the High Priest of Nichiren Shoshu to endorse the despicable things we see on SG-eye/Cebunet: inventing lies to discredit a reporter who does not report what the High Priest desires; coloring the readers’ perception of a story by characterizing what the story says before it is read; priests asking the SGI to follow a certain course, then condemning it for following that course then, and for not following it now, after being told it’s no longer affiliated with the priesthood (not choosing to disaffiliate — being told it was disaffiliated). The 1963 Look article — and others like it condemning the SGI’s supposed intolerance of other beliefs — should have been directed at Nichiren Shoshu. But it was the determination of Mr. Toda that the Gakkai would absorb all the criticism society would direct at its propagation efforts in behalf of Nichiren Shoshu — in other words, the Gakkai would shield Nichiren Shoshu.
That the High Priest is using that now to attack the Gakkai shows what kind of cowardly, treacherous man he is.
6)
“Weekly Post — High Priest’s Room Bugged”
Nichiren Shoshu often criticizes
President Ikeda for staying in top-rate accommodations when he travels.
In its lust to endorse an article that points a finger at the Gakkai for
a crime, it seems to have missed an interesting point the article brings
to light: The High Priest was staying in a hotel suite usually used by
the Emperor, movie stars and other well-to-do luminaries.
There’s no problem with that if he can afford it; but the hypocrisy of his followers, who post the comments about President Ikeda, is worth noting.
Anyway: the entirety of the “evidence” the Weekly Post presents to tie the Gakkai to the bugging is that it was “reportedly related to Abe’s struggles with the Soka Gakkai”.
That’s it! “Reportedly”!
The incident occurred in March, 1999. Guess what: no one but the Weekly Post has ever mentioned the Gakkai as a possible suspect. There has been a trial, over an unrelated incident, in which a member of the Myokanko, one of Nikken’s pet lay groups, has admitted bugging priests’ rooms.
More rebuttal of SG-eye: